The summer box office just got a lot deeper.
Following the biggest Memorial Day weekend of all time with an updated near $330 million haul last week per Comscore, the theatrical release schedule now has a rhythm with something for everyone, at least for a while. Definitely through Labor Day weekend, at least, with New Line’s The Conjuring: Last Rites. Gearing up business even more is the fact that 45% of K-12 schools are out for good this summer starting Friday.
The big new event film going this frame is Sony’s Karate Kid: Legends, which was made for a thrifty net $45M before P&A and is a complete homage to the Karate Kid of yore, the new Jackie Chan paradigm and the Cobra Kai fandom. It’s expected to do $25M-$30M at 3,600 locations, including a share of PLF screens, and even though it’s impossible for Ralph Macchio’s Daniel-son and Chan’s Mr. Han to kick Disney’s Lilo & Stitch to the mat, that’s a great second- or third-place haul for exhibitors this weekend. Previews start Thursday at 2 p.m. The review embargo that lifted at the time of this post hasn’t registered on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Karate Kid is a 41-year old film franchise counting five previous movies. The 2010 reboot with Chan and Jaden Smith owns the franchise’s record opening with $55.7M. It’s also the series’ highest-grossing title at the box office, with $176.6M domestic and $359M worldwide.
‘Lilo & Stitch’
Disney
Meanwhile, Lilo & Stitch is looking at a second frame of $60M, off 59%, which is in the vicinity of previous Disney Memorial Day live-action takes of classic toons Aladdin (-53%) and Little Mermaid (57%). We’re getting word that Tuesday was fantastic; at the time of this post, we’re still waiting on those numbers. The final four-day total on Lilo & Stitch was $182.6M, still the best debut Memorial Day weekend has ever seen. If you have a great movie, Hollywood, people will break off from the barbeque.
Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning will stay afloat with all those Imax screens, dipping an expected 50% for a second weekend of $32M. The eighth Tom Cruise Ethan Hunt movie finaled at $79M the four-day holiday box office.
Sally Hawkins and Jonah Wren Phillips in ‘Bring Her Back‘
A24 via YouTube
Also looking to break out is the follow-up film from Australian twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, Bring Her Back, at 89% fresh. I wouldn’t underestimate this second film from the duo after their Sundance smash Talk to Me, which minted more than $48M stateside. Projections are $5M-$7M for this movie about foster teens (one of them visually impaired) in peril with a their new foster mom played by Sally Hawkins — who we all know from sweet natured roles ala The Shape of Water, but here, she’s an amazing monster. A24 financed the movie and sold foreign rights to Sony.
Talk to Me ranks as A24’s third-highest opening for a horror movie at $10.4M after Ari Aster’s Hereditary ($13.5M) and the Hugh Grant’s Heretic at $10.8M. One thing is for certain: This is a twisted movie, like you’ve never seen before.